I give Sheryl Crow a lot of credit, for a lot of reasons: Not only does the 50-year-old singer seem admirably optimistic and pragmatic about her benign brain tumor diagnosis, she's brave enough to speak her mind about why she thinks she got the tumor in the first place, even though her theory is a controversial one. What is it? Well, here's a clue: Crow says the tumor, or meningioma, is about the size of her pinkie finger and is located behind her ear, in the "cell phone area."

Before you dismiss Crow's suspicions as paranoia, the mother-of-two doesn't link current cell phone use to her tumor; instead, she thinks the damage may have been done back in the "early, early days" of both cell phones and her career, when she would spend hours doing interviews on phones far less sophisticated than what we use now.

Of course, Crow doesn't have proof -- but she does have the support of some heavy-hitters in the medical community, including Sanjay Gupta M.D., who advocates the use of a wired earpiece.

Either way, I admire Crow for bringing this issue into the spotlight. Not just the cell phone angle, but also -- perhaps even more so -- because Crow knew something was "off" for two years before doctors figured out what was going on. Feeling spaced out and forgetful, Crow was initially worred about early-onset Alzheimers, but her doctors wrote off the symptoms to "having two little kids, not sleeping." Finally Crow requested an MRI, and ... oh look, a tumor.

Like she says, "you have to be sensitive to your body." And speak up on its behalf, apparently!